Championship review

Saturday 15 April 2006 19.58 EDT
First published on Saturday 15 April 2006 19.58 EDT

Sheffield United were able to start celebrating promotion as Leeds lost their slender mathematical chance of catching them after being held to a 1-1 draw by Reading

In response to the deplorable actions of some fans in sending Leeds manager Kevin Blackwell hate mail, the Elland Road crowd wasted no time in showing their support for him at the start. In the first half, Leeds, without a win in six matches and with no goals in the past four, did little to suggest they could break the sequence. Their best chance came when Rob Hulse connected with Stephen Crainey's left-wing cross only to send a glancing header wide. Hulse did find the net just after half time, but Stephen Hunt brought the Championship title-winners level five minutes from the end.

The comeback of the day, though, was that of Crewe at Crystal Palace. Two Andrew Johnson goals put Palace 2-0 ahead, but Crewe made it 2-2 through Luke Rodgers and a Kenny Lunt penalty. Unfortunately for Crewe, the other teams in the relegation zone also had good results. Millwall, at home to Plymouth, found themselves behind after 10 minutes when Paul Connolly swung over a corner from the left and Vincent Pericard, completely unmarked, emphatically headed in his first goal since a hat-trick against Coventry in February. Plymouth, who started the day with the fifth best defensive record in the division, looked a good bet to hold their lead but Millwall's 18-year-old striker Marvin Williams, back in the team after injury, headed the equaliser.

Brighton did even better in winning 2-1 at Ipswich. They snatched the lead in first-half stoppage time, through Gifton Noel-Williams - his first shot of the match - and Joel Lynch increased their lead. What proved to be no more than a consolation goal for Ipswich came from Nicky Forster.

Sheffield Wednesday, fourth from bottom, overcame Norwich 1-0. The decisive goal came just before half time, when Marcus Tudgay latched on to a hopeful long ball before wrong-footing the defence and shooting from the edge of the box. His shot was well saved, but when the keeper sent the ball into the air Tudgay followed up with a looping header. The players wore black armbands on the seventeenth anniversary of Hillsborough disaster.

One of the best individual displays was that of Southampton's Polish striker Grzegorz Rasiak in the 2-1 win at Stoke. Rasiak, who will join Southampton permanently from Tottenham in the summer, opened the scoring with a penalty awarded for a foul on him by Marlon Broomes and Raziak added a second with a classy half-volley.

In addition to Glenn Hoddle, another Championship manager attracting speculation about his future is Luton's Mike Newell. It is now a month since Luton announced they had reached agreement with Newell on a new contract, but the 41-year-old - who disputed the claim - said last week: 'My situation is exactly the same. Never was a deal sorted out. That's why I got annoyed at the time, and especially that it was made public. It is not the sort of thing I speak about in public until it is done.

'I never did that as a player and I'm not about to start doing it as a manager. I've got another year left [on his present agreement] and while I would like to secure my future here, there needs to be a bit of give from both ends.'

He has done an excellent job at Luton, but will quickly want to forget their 2-1 home defeat by Coventry.